Hurry out of Houston
The Port of Houston approved a sustained import dwell fee back in October but ran into software issues that prevented them from implementing the new regulations. Now that the software updates are near complete, the new fees will go into effect on January 1.
“The sustained import dwell Fee is intended to minimize long-term storage of containers on the terminals and promote fluidity of cargo movement,” said Roger Guenther, executive director at Port Houston, in a statement. “We’ve seen during the recent increase in demand that containers sitting on terminals for an extended period of time are a challenge. We are implementing this additional tool to help optimize space at our terminals and keep goods moving to the consumers in our region who need them.”
In addition to the regular demurrage charges of about $61 per day for containers lingering past the port’s allotted free time, after 7 days, an added fee of $45 per container per day will be charged.
Not only that, the port intends on imposing an excessive import dwell fee of $50 per day with a 30-day notice to shippers will temporarily replace the sustained import dwell fee in the case of extreme congestion.
The threat of these fees alone has encouraged shippers to remove long-dwelling containers from the terminal. It brought the percentage of containers left more than 14 days from 15.4% in November to about 8.8%.
COVID and Congestions
Carriers are reporting longer wait times and vessel queues in major ports in China and South Korea because of bad weather and a resurgence in COVID cases.
Fog and strong winds are preventing ports from operating as usual and causing congestion. Terminal utilization is down nearly 25% in Ningbo and Busan.
“Congestion has built up around the Chinese ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, and Qingdao over the past week, pushing up the number of container ships waiting at Chinese anchorages to 850,000 TEU — the highest levels seen since September,” said maritime research firm, Linerlytica.
To make matters worse, Lunar New Year is quickly approaching which will further impact the ports’ operations.
Hopefully, the weather will ease up and the amount of COVID cases will go down quickly.